Salon Series
What is a Salon?
Dating back to the literary and philosophical movements of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France, a salon is “a fashionable assemblage of notables (such as literary figures, artists, or statesmen) held by custom at the home of a prominent person.”At the Heller Center, junior faculty present their research to the campus and wider Colorado Springs community. The audience may choose – or not - to read a pre-posted selection of the professor’s writing before the event. After a brief lecture, the floor opens for questions and conversation – all with wine and cheese.
ㅤHeller Center Salon Series
Upcoming Salon
Date: Thursday,October 10
Time: 7 pm
Haruki Eda
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Collective Memory and Community Solidarity in the Korean Diaspora
Haruki will discuss how diasporic Koreans produce counter-hegemonic collective memory through site visits, storytelling, and public memorials related to historical atrocities and ongoing peace struggles.
Haruki Eda (he/they) is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at UCCS, where he teaches on race/ethnicity, globalization and development, Asian American communities, war and social change, and qualitative research. medieval ostriches, maps and digital technology.
Haruki’s research interests include community organizing, ethnic identity, nationalism, and gender/sexuality, in the geopolitical context of East Asia and North America. His book project examines the Korean diaspora’s role in peace, reunification, and liberation from queer/feminist perspectives.
February 2025 Series
Josh Vandiver
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
What is Masculinism?
Are we witnessing the emergence of a new ideology centering men and masculinities? We consider examples of masculinism ranging from the online “manosphere” to Supreme Court jurisprudence. Dr Josh Vandiver is an assistant professor of Political Science at UCCS. A fifth-generation Coloradan, he completed his undergraduate training at Harvard College and his doctorate at Princeton University.
Josh Vandiver is an assistant professor of Political Science at UCCS. A fifth-generation Coloradan, he completed his undergraduate training at Harvard College and his doctorate at Princeton University.
Josh Vandiver researches in the areas of political theory, history of political thought, and gender studies with a focus on radical movements and thinkers.
April 2025 Series
Monet Reynoso
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Death & Diploma Mills: Liberatory Suicide Prevention for Veterans in Contemporary America
Monet will discuss how focuses on mental health, higher education and the politics of refusal in a post-truth society. Are we witnessing the emergence of a new ideology centering men and masculinities? We consider examples of masculinism ranging from the online “manosphere” to Supreme Court jurisprudence.
Originally from Tempe, AZ, Nina Monet Reynoso moved to Los Angeles to study psychology at Occidental College where she graduated in 2016. Following a brief stint in finance, she decided that a career in education was more aligned with her values and went for her MA in Higher Education at UCLA in 2017. Dr. Reynoso completed their PhD in Social Sciences and Comparative Education with Dr. Daniel Solórzano as their advisor in the fall of 2022. They began teaching at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Spring 2024 in the department of Women's and Ethnic Studies (WEST) as an expert in Black studies. Her classes highlight elements of international and domestic military history, the GI Bill, Black feminisms, critical media studies, and more. When Dr. Reynoso is not teaching, they are often spending time in the kitchen, at the pottery wheel, or planning their next trip.
Dr. Reynoso’s research interests center around the military-industrial-higher-education-complex and its translation to popular media. Research interests also include ontologies of abolition, marronage, and fugitivity within spaces of marginality (i.e. fragging, wildcat strikes, etc.).
Past Salon Series
“Refuge of Oppression:” Abolitionist Perspectives on the United States as a Place of Refuge
Evan Taparata
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Spring 2024
The Chief and the Governor: Material Culture and Comanche/Spanish Diplomacy in Late 18thCentury New Mexico
Fernando Feliu-Moggi
Chair of the Department of Languages and Cultures, Professor of Spanish
Department of Languages and Cultures
Winter 2024
Ghost Cameras, invisible inks and forgotten texts: the next generation of multispectral imaging to recover lost documents
Helen Davies
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Fall 2023
Barriers to Honesty in Communication - What it Means for Leadership, Life, and Work
Elena Svetieva
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication / Director of Leadership Communication
Spring 2023
Voices without Borders
Haleh Abghari
Senior Instructor
Department of Visual and Performing Arts/ Director of Voice
Winter 2023
Hypernostalgia in Contemporary American Visual Culture
Climate Consciousness: Empire, Energy, Progress
Dylan M. Harris
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Geography & Environmental Studies
Spring 2022